Month: November 2023

The taxi service Uber is finally coming to Ibiza on Wednesday 29 November with an initial fleet of 14 cars available for private transport hire using the Uber app as confirmed by Felipe Fernández Aramburu, the general director of Uber in Spain and Portugal.

Initially the platform will offer 2 different types of cars, Uber Comfort and Uber Van with a capacity for 4 and 6 passengers respectively.

In addition, existing taxi drivers will also be able to sign up and accept trips through the application charging their existing prices but paying Uber a 12% commission for the use of its technology.

Existing taxi drivers will also be offered an incentive for registering on the platform of 150 euros for their first 25 journeys plus another 300 euros if they sign up another driver.

Uber has previously been viewed with suspicion from the taxi sector in the 10 Spanish cities in which it already operates however Felipe Fernández Aramburu stressed that thousands of taxi drivers have already registered on its application, 3,000 in Madrid and more than 130 in Mallorca.

The price for the Uber Comfort service is 0.17 euros per minute and 0.94 per km, with a flag drop of 7 euros and a minimum price of 10 euros, the same amount that is charged for canceling the trip. Uber Van will cost 0.3 euros per minute plus 1.50 per kilometer, with a base rate of 9 euros and a minimum of 18.40, the same for cancellation.

Ibiza will be the 2nd Balearic island where Uber will operate after services started in Mallorca on 8 June with a fleet of 50 cars. On the first day of service, they reached 20,000 users, according to the company’s data.

Fernández Aramburu also announced his intention to operate Uber on Formentera and Menorca however no specific dates were mentioned.

Get ready for a stat attack!

Officially published figures have revealed the growth that is fuelling the Ibiza and Formentera economy and shows no sign of weakening. With the last 3 months still unaccounted for, 2023 is already a record year for tourism in 2 Pitiuses Islands

In the first 9 months of 2023 Ibiza and Formentera received a total of 3,313,373, visitors which is 7.86% or 241,407 more than the same period in 2022 and not only are more people coming but they are also spending more money.

With regards to nationalities of visitors, Spain are again at the top of the list with 856,755, an increase compared to last year of nearly 9%, closely followed by the British with 806,803 visitors, an increase of 8.36%. Then there is a gap to the Italians with 377,416 visitors – an increase of 5.76%, followed by the Dutch with 330,014 visitors, a decrease of 1.99%.

The number of German and French tourists has seen a decline for the first 9 months of 2023. Germany with 271,699 – a drop of 2.71% – while the French saw a 5.56% decrease with a total of 176,134 visitors.

The Balearics as a whole received 15.5 million tourists from January to September, an increase of 8.2% compared to last year so 2023 will mark an historical high for both arrivals and also tourist revenues

Official numbers show that during the first 9 months of 2023 the average tourist spend in Ibiza and Formentera was 1,168.53 euros per person during their stay which breaks down to 198.51 euros per person per day, 8.6% more than in 2022. The total tourist spend in Ibiza and Formentera for the first 9 months of the 2023 was 3.871 billion euros, over 300 million more than the whole of 2022.

The big picture is that with the last 3 months yet to be accounted for, the Balearic archipelago of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera has already exceeded the turnover for all of last year which had a cumulative total tourist spending of 17.35 billion euros.

Meanwhile the tourist association Exceltur’s latest report on the profitability and employment in Spain’s 104 main tourist destinations highlights that Ibiza Town had the most expensive rooms in Spain from June to September at an average price of 231.60 euros per room per night. 2nd on the list is Estepona on the Costa del Sol with an average nightly rate of 210.20 euros followed by Ibiza’s Sant Josep with 196.50 euros per room per night. The top 5 is made up by Marbella with 195.60 euros and Chiclana in Cadiz with 187 euros.

Santa Eulalia is in 7th place with an average nightly rate of 156.90 euros per room, meanwhile San Antonio comes in at number 14 with an average stay from June to September 2023 costing 127.90 euros per room per night but also gets a special mention for the investment by hoteliers to modernize and upgrade establishments that is noticeably taking effect.